


Mer AU World Building And Bonus Content

by SilverWing15



Series: Heart Of The Sea [5]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Bonus Content, Merpeople, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 22:21:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30028701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWing15/pseuds/SilverWing15
Summary: what it says on the tin.Ch1: General world building, mer culture, biology, etc.Ch2: art and character backstoriesCH3: original Mer AU chapters and outline (scrapped, will not be continued)
Series: Heart Of The Sea [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185698
Comments: 11
Kudos: 184





	1. World Building

**Author's Note:**

> There were several people interested in this so I thought I'd give you guys the world building I did for Mer Au! I've still got one more chapter of Warmth Of the Sun to upload as well as what I have of Techno's backstory (which I *might* **eventually** add more onto but for now its being left as is)

**Mer/Human Interactions in Present Day:**

There are countless laws governing human interaction with mer in the present day. Generally these laws amount to “don’t interact with the mer” for the safety of everyone involved. 

On costal towns, these laws are often bent or ignored, especially when it comes to territory holding males in the area. These are typically ‘integrated’ mer who though they live their lives wild, are typically alright with human presence. They interact with human culture and even have human friends. 

There are also land-raised mer, who were found abandoned or injured and raised in human care. The laws around mer children are much more strictly enforced than those around integrated mer. Facilities like Sam’s take a lot to get off the ground and fully accredited. Every member of staff must be carefully vetted and everything that they do is subject to strict guidelines. 

Land-raised adults are considered ‘human’ in the eyes of the law, they are full citizens of the nation/town that they are raised in. 

**Mer/Human Conflicts in History:**

In modern times, humans have all sorts of laws protecting mer, but that wasn’t always the case. As recently as a hundred years ago, there was a lot of money in hunting down mer. Some were kept as pets, many were killed for interfering in fishing and whaling businesses, and there was no small marke for their scales, which were considered very beautiful and made wonderful jewelry. 

Mer hunters would often capture mer children and use them as bait for their elders, or follow them back to the pod and take the whole group. This is partially the origin of Mer’s belief that children returning to the pod were cursed. 

Some Matriarchs are old enough to remember these times directly, but for the most part, stories are passed down to the next generation, warning of the evils of humans.

  
  


**_Mer Pods_ **

**Members:**

Pods are led by a  **Matriarch** , typically the eldest female of the group. She is tasked with remembering the routes and currents that will take the pod through male territories and help them find food and travel to important religious sites. She is also the religious head of the pod. She offers prayers and sacrifices to the Sea Mother and Names the children when they come of age. 

**Mothers and pregnant females** (called queens) 

**Nursery Guard** , typically one but sometimes two adult males who help protect the pod. 

A nursery guard can be replaced at any time if a male challenges them for their position. If the standing guard isn’t strong enough to hold off the challenger, he is unfit to be Guard and he is driven from the pod. 

  
  
  


**Younger females** who haven’t had or don’t desire to have children.

**The Children** are the heart and soul of a pod. They are precious in mer culture and well watched over and taken care of by the group. 

  
  


**Childhood and life:**

Mer give live birth, typically on the shores of sandbars or small islands with no human population. The babies can’t swim very well but they can breathe both water and air like all mer. 

They develop along the same lines as a human child, though it takes them less time to learn to swim than it does for a human baby to walk. They also learn to speak sooner as most of Mer tongue is less complex words and more singing of feelings. 

Young mer start out with very dull colors, to help them blend better, but they grow brighter and more vibrant as they age. Males will develop a large sail, but females do not. 

At around ten or so, children are Named in an important ceremony and they are fully welcomed into the pod. 

Any children who get lost from the pod are considered dead in the eyes of the pod. If they are found by other mer or manage to find their way back, no mer will acknowledge them except to ward them away. It is believed that these children are cursed and will bring doom upon the rest of the pod. 

When children come of age, males leave the pod, sometimes alone, but typically in groups of up to eight or ten and go seek out their own territory. They will fight other males for the best and biggest territory full of the best resources to offer traveling pods. 

Females will either stay in their birth pod, or if the pod is getting too large, they might break off and form their own. These daughter pods will stick near the original group for awhile before setting off on their own. Generally they take the pod’s current heir with them, as she will have the training to properly run the pod.

  
  


**Religion:**

Mer believe in what they refer to as the Sea Mother. Whether this is a being, a force, or simply the ocean itself is unclear even in their own religion. Sometimes the Sea Mother is referred to as a being who lives in the deepest depths of the ocean, but sometimes she is referred to as the water itself, or the embodiment of the open ocean. 

Names are deeply important and secretive in mer culture. Children are only named once they reach about ten years old. The Matriarch will take the pod deep into the open ocean and take each of the children to be Named off on their own. There she will name them and they will give their name to the Sea Mother so that when their time comes, she can call them to the afterlife. 

**Language and Gestures**

Mer communicate through a mixture of calls, gestures, and speech. Speech is less common in the wild pods, but integrated and land-raised mer tend to prefer speech since they speak to humans so commonly. 

Mer are not restrained people, they make their emotions clear and declare their intentions upfront. As such, lying or concealing feelings is very uncommon in their culture. It is simply not something that would even occur to most mer. 

Mer are all very tactile creatures, among those they trust physical contact is extremely common. Most mer will sleep in great big piles. Even human raised mer have this trait and extend it out to their human family and friends. 

**Cheek Touch**

Touching someone’s cheek is a very important gesture in mer culture. It is half instinctive, generally it is a means of greeting dear friends and pod members. It can also be a submissive gesture in some contexts, typically done from a territory holding male to a Matriarch or female he is welcoming into his territory.

**Distress Chirp**

Young mer will make a distress chirp instinctively when they are frightened to call any nearby adult to their aid. 

**The Rumble**

An instinctive call that adults use towards children to calm and reassure them in stressful situations. It releases a flood of endorphins that will often put infants and toddlers to sleep. Typically, as children get older they grow more used to the rumble and it is less effective on them. 

**Baring Throat**

A gesture of complete and utter surrender, especially when paired with rolling onto their back. It is extremely rare to see a mer pushed to this point. They are heavily weighed towards fighting rather than surrender. This position is a last resort attempt to receive mercy.

**Click**

A curious or questioning sound, mer have limited sonar capabilities so it is half instinctive to click when they are curious about something. 

**Flared sail** ****

Males will grow large sails as they mature and they use these to signal aggression and challenge. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Character Art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that I have sketches and such of what everyone's mer form looks like so this is World Building Continued lmao

I went ahead and figured out the color patterning of The Boys

First up is Tommy! he’ll probably end up looking a lot like Techno when he’s older, coloring-wise, maybe more reds than pinks for him though. They *might* be related but if they are they don’t know it because Techno was raised totally ‘wild’ and Tommy was raised by Dream in captivity. 

Next up is Tubbo! Green boy! He’s the oldest of the younger mers at the Center so he’s got brighter colors than the other two boys.

Finally, Ranboo! Who’s colors are, in a word Fucked. when he was little, before his colors started really coming in everyone figured he was piebald, but since he got both red _and_ green scales as he grew they’re kind of wondering if he’s a chimera or something. He got lost from his pod after an accident so he does have memory issues in this AU thanks to a brain injury instead of whatever shenaneganary is going on in canon.

And finally the adult mer.

Sam is a land-raised mer who was brought up by humans doing their best, but after he was grown and working successfully as an inventor, Sam decided that he wanted to give other lost mer kids a place to grow up and so he founded the Center (that still needs a name. names are the worst lmao) 

Puffy is a fully trained therapist who works at the Center, she is extremely busy because any ‘wild’ mer kids coming in are Not Fond of humans. Even though Puffy was, like Sam, fully human-raised, she is still a female mer and that’s what most of the kids will be comfortable with. 

If not, they’ve got ‘wild’ born and raised Techno. He was a nursery guard for a pod, but lost a fight to a challenger

Finally, a little bit on avians:

who I really don’t have nearly as much on as the mer, because this is Mer AU and all, but I am incapable of not world building shit so here we go:

Avians are much more rare than mer, *full* avians are pretty much nonexistent except for a few really insular groups who are all about that blood purity shit. 

Full avians are most commonly called harpies just to avoid confusion and such. They’re said to have magic as well but nobody is really sure if they’re telling the truth about that.

The most common are 50% hybrids, because magic fucks with punnet squares so they’re what comes around most often no matter the avian-content of the individual parents blood. If one of them is a quarter or more, the kid’s likely to be halvsies. 

Why does being half avian give them two more entire limbs? Magic, that’s how. Half-avians *do* have hair, I”m just lazy. 

(Half-avians in canon are of course Phil and Quackity, and Wilbur is a quarter. Rip Wilby. 

Avians of any content level are _great_ mimics and singers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The original Mer AU, scrapped for the current version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still like what I've got for this, but in the end I was more interested in telling the story of Tommy being with Dream in Mer AU and that's how Turn of the Tide came around.   
> I have no interest in ever continuing this but if someone else wants to its fair game, mark it as inspired by and let me know you've written it because I'd love to read!

#  Mer AU Scrapped Chapters

###  Chapter 1 

The storm rages above them, but beneath the waves they are safe. Technoblade raises his head, watching the shadow of a boat pass overhead, the boys sleep on peacefully but he will not lower his guard while humans are so near. 

He knows the nature of man, their greed, their cruelty.

If they are lucky, Tommy and Tubbo never will. The boat seems to be struggling, it should not have come out in the middle of a storm such as this but humans are just as arrogant and foolish as they are greedy and cruel. 

Perhaps the Sea Mother will take these humans as tribute. Break their little boat and send them to the depths of herself, never to be seen again. He has seen it happen before, many times, he has helped the Mother keep her prey more than once. It is only right, the humans once took him, now it is fair that he takes them. Not his fault that they can’t breathe. 

The boat passes by and Techno considers chasing after it, but in the end, it isn’t worth it, not for the chance that it will capsize. He has more productive things to do than chase humans. The night is young and there is prey to be hunted. 

*** 

The storm rages around them, tossing them about on the waves. Will is pale and grim faced, trying desperately to try and get the engine to respond, trying to get the radio to spit even a little bit of static. Phil braces himself as another wave tosses them, they should have been safe, there was no storms on the radar, there was only clear skies and calm waters. 

This boat is not meant for the sea in its fury, they cannot hope to survive this. If they don’t find land they will be lost forever to its depths. Another swell tosses them around, Will staggers into him and Phil has to brace himself hard to keep both of them from going over. 

Will looks to him, desperate for answers, for reassurance. What do they do? 

Phil doesn’t know. What can they possibly do against the might of the sea but pray that it chooses to be merciful? He holds his son tight and prays that he at least, will make it out of this. Another wave rises high above them, like the fist of a god, Phil closes his eyes. 

It lands, and the boat disappears beneath them and they are at the mercy of the waves. 

***

He wakes up, and he knows that he’s not dreaming or in some idealized afterlife because he feels like  _ complete and utter shit _ . He groans and it tears at his raw throat. He rolls onto his back and his spine and muscles all register their complaints. 

_ Fuck _ . 

In books and such, the hero always wakes up confused and dazed, and then there’s a whole flashback. Phil remembers every second of the storm, of holding Will tight in his arms, praying that if the sea has to claim one of them as tribute, it takes him and not his son. 

He cracks his eyes open, they’re gritty and dry, just as tender as the rest of him. His head is pounding already and the light isn’t helping. But he can’t close his eyes and lay back down. He has to get up. He has to find Will. 

He made it here, Will has to have as well. 

...Where is here? 

Phil spins around taking in is surroundings. The sea is behind him, and before him is dense jungle. Not a sandbar, an actual island. That’s good, that’s good. They won’t drown come high tide. 

“Will?” He croaks, then louder, even if its agonizing. “Wilbur?” 

He staggers down the rocky shore in a random direction. Will has to be here, they’d gone overboard together. They can’t have gotten separated. He can’t have lost his son. 

There is trash all over the beach, cans and bottles and plastic bags, things the sea took and cast away. Phil scans the rocks desperately, muscles, seaweed, crabs scuttling between tide pools. Life, but not the one he is looking for. 

Then, there, almost invisible among the rocks, a brown jacket. “Will,” Phil gasps, he falls to his knees at Wilbur’s side, heedless of the rocks. He’s breathing, thank all the gods he’s breathing. 

Phil gently feels down his son’s spine, searching for any break, but there’s nothing. He turns Will onto his back. He listens to his chest but there’s no gurgle of water caught in his lungs. 

He rests his forehead there, over Will’s heart, feeling it beat. Anchoring himself in it. He’s alive, he’s  _ alive. _ They’re stranded on an island in the middle of the sea with no way of getting home but his son is  _ alive _ . Everything else is secondary. 

Wilbur groans softly. 

“Hey,” Phil says quietly, “its alright, you probably feel like shit. Don’t move too much.” 

“...dad?” Will mutters, “Fuck.” 

Phil laughs, “yeah, that’s about how I felt.” 

“Where are we?” Will asks, sitting up and looking around. 

“We crashed,” Phil says, “we’re on an island somewhere.” 

“Shit.” 

“Pretty much.” 

“Any supplies?” 

“I only woke up a few minutes ago, I went looking for you first.” 

Wilbur sighs, “well, I guess we’ve got a lot of fucking work to do.” 

They do. They really fucking do. 

*** 

The island is a blessing, really. They find fresh water not too deep into the jungle, and there are wild pigs and small birds to eat. Their shelter comes together over the next few days, nothing that would stand up to more than a strong breeze, but it is enough. 

The real problem is that they are stuck on the island  _ together. _

Phil knows that he was a distant father, that Wilbur held no small grudge about it, that their relationship had crumbled under the strain. The boat trip was the first time they’d seen each other in months. 

Wilbur was busy with his company,and Phil was living out a quiet early retirement. 

Under the strain of survival, the quiet distance of their relationship is forced into shouting matches loud enough to shake the jungle. The arguments don’t really matter, its mostly over who is supposed to watch the fire, who forgot to get water. Small things, easier to yell about than all the big ones. 

“If  _ you _ want to dehydrate, feel fucking free!” Wilbur snarls, “I for one, would like to live long enough to be rescued!” 

They stand, facing each other over the fire, chests heaving, eyes flashing with anger. But Phil can’t let himself shout back. One of them has to be mature, and he’s stuck with that job. 

“I’m going to gather muscles,” Phil grits out. 

“Oh sure,” Will snaps, “walk away, that’s a big shock.” 

Phil grabs the bucket and marches out of camp without another word. 

The beach is still their best supply of food and tools. The bucket was a massive find, washed up on shore missing its handle and half rusted but still better than nothing. They’ve gotten bottles and cans as well, which make carrying water easier. The cans they’ve attempted to cut into hooks but none of them have worked so far. 

Phil flips a rock, nothing under it but a few snails too small to bother eating. He flips it back over and continues down the beach. The waves crash, shorebirds cry, the background noise of his entire life, but this time there are no cars or voices. Just the sounds of the wild. 

If this were some fancy retreat it might be relaxing, but they’re trapped here, with nothing but the wild. And if they don’t make it back to civilization, no one will know, it will just be their bones on some long-forgotten beach. 

Phil jerks his mind away from those thoughts. Optimism. He has to have optimism. They have a signal fire ready if there is any sign of life, they have enough on the island to sustain them for awhile. As long as neither of them does something stupid and gets injured or sick, they’ll be fine. They have to be fine. 

He flips another rock, there’s a nice sized crab under this one, he snatches it and dumps it into the bucket before it can pinch him. A bird lands not too far away, watching him with its head cocked. “Bug off,” he mutters, waving a hand at it, “none of this shit is for you. Find your own food.” 

The bird takes off, skimming over the rocks lazily. He follows it with his eyes, wondering if they could find a way to trap one of them. 

Then his eyes land on something else. On the rocks, there is a pair of mer. 

Phil drops to a crouch immediately, but they don’t seem to have noticed him. They’re a pair of young boys, too young to be on their own. They still have the dull colors of children, only a dusting of brilliant red around the shoulders of the blond one. 

Mer this young can mean only one thing: a pod. And a pod means mothers. The stories didn’t call mermaids  _ devil fish _ for no reason. 

Mer and humans have a long and bloody history, and mermaids don’t fucking forget that. They hold grudges, passing down stories and rage to their daughters. Humans leave mer pods alone, or humans get dragged screaming into the ocean and torn to bloody shreds.

If this island is a regular stopping place for a pod they’re  _ fucked _ . 

Phil peeks over the rocks again, the mer boys are still sunning themselves, laughing to each other in the high tones of mer-speak. There aren’t any others, but they’re old enough that they might be separating from the pod, striking out on their own bit by bit. 

Gods let them be just hanging out here far from their pod. 

Phil’s legs are aching from staying in this position but he’s not moving. He was lucky that he wasn’t noticed before. If the pod hears about humans alone on this island they will start patrolling the waters, and then no rescue will dare come for them even if they’re found. 

A deeper sound rings out over the water, Phil peeks over his shelter again. There is a third mer on the rocks now, scolding the other two, but its not their mother or any other member of a pod. 

He’s a fully grown adult, too old to still be with a pod, but clearly not the father of the boys. They look nothing like him. He should be driving them off, but instead he’s accepting the press of the brown haired boy’s cheek against his own. 

He’s also familiar. 

Phil met him once, when they were both much younger. Tangled in a discarded net, and being the stupid young man he was, he’d gone into the water to rescue him. With all he knows now, he could beat his younger self over the head. He was lucky as  _ fuck _ that the rest of the pod hadn’t torn him to shreds. 

That wasn’t the last time he’d seen this particular mer though. Years later, he’d been saved from drowning by him, older, scarred, and grumpy, yes, but Phil recognized him all the same. Just like he recognizes him now. 

The mer slip off the rocks and back into the sea and Phil is left staring after them, wondering just how safe he and Will are. If there isn’t a pod nearby, then Phil’s friend won’t bother them and they’ll get rescue as soon as they can call for it. But if there is a pod…

Phil sighs and shakes his head, it isn’t a problem for today. They just have to get through today, and worry about tomorrow when it comes. 

###  Chapter 2 

“Tommy I said give it  _ back _ !” Techno snarls, but he’s too big and slow to catch Tommy. He laughs, darting through a gap in the rocks that Techno will have to go around. 

“I’m  _ using it _ ,” Tommy calls back, holding the spear close, “I’m gonna go fishing!” 

“Not with my spear you’re not!” 

Techno swims around the rock, his fins flared, teeth flashing, but Tommy only laughs. He’s not like those other males who would actually hurt a calf, Techno is a big fucking softie. 

“Or what?” he trills, making a show of twirling over himself, flashing the belly he knows that Techno won’t go for. 

Techno growls, “Tommy.” 

“Techno.” 

“Just give it back,” Tubbo sighs, “you don’t even  _ need _ a spear to go fishing.” 

“Yeah, but I want to try it.” 

“Then make your  _ own _ spear.” 

“Why would I when I can use yours?” 

“You  _ can’t _ use mine!” 

Tubbo laughs, slipping out of the den and swimming past Tommy, grabbing the spear from his hands as he goes. “Then take it back.” He waggles it tauntingly, drifting closer to Techno. 

Techno hisses, “I  _ swear _ if you don’t give it back--” he snatches for the spear but Tubbo darts away. 

Tommy is after him with a flick of his tail, easily passing Techno. He feels the water stir as Techno grabs for him, but he misses. Tommy laughs and holds out a hand for Tubbo to pass the spear to him. 

Keep away is fun, especially since Techno can’t keep up with them. That doesn’t stop him from outmaneuvering them though. Tubbo darts through the kelp forest and yelps and Tommy knows that the game is up. Sure enough, Techno’s bright red and pink scales loom from the darkness. He’s got Tubbo wrapped in one arm, the spear firmly in his other hand. 

“Enough,” he says, dumping Tubbo and twisting to give him a smack with his tail. “If you want to go fishing, go fishing. Leave my spear out of it.” 

Tommy warbles petulantly at him but Techno only grumbles and disappears back into the den. Killjoy. 

Tubbo swims up alongside him, fins brushing Tommy’s side. “Are we actually going fishing?” 

“May as well.” 

They go to the sunning island, there’s always some big fish in the drop off below the rocks. Always, except for this time, apparently. 

Tommy dives deep, but they aren’t even hanging out at the bottom. “What the hell?” Tommy mutters, his fins stirring up a bit of dust. 

“That’s disappointing,” Tubbo says, “I guess we could try the reef?” 

“Yeah,” Tommy mutters, casting one more disappointed glance at the few small guppies that are drifting through the dropoff. He’d  _ wanted _ to come back to the den with a huge fish so that Techno would try and pretend that he wasn’t impressed. There won’t be anything like that on the reef though. 

The reef seems quieter than usual, the fish mostly tucked away in their own dens or lingering close to the rocks. Tommy keeps close to Tubbo, but there are no sharks that might have driven the fish into hiding, not even a really big grouper. 

“Maybe we should go back,” Tubbo says quietly. Their tails brush together as they both hang still in the water. 

“Not empty-handed!” Tommy insists, “we have to at least catch  _ something _ .” 

“Fine,” Tubbo says reluctantly. But they both stick close together. 

Tommy sees it first, a group of fish all hanging suspended in the water, only one of them is struggling feebly, the rest are dead in the water. “What is that?” Tommy whispers, there is nothing holding the fish there, they’re just floating. Just dead. 

He drifts closer. 

Tubbo yanks on his tail, “don’t go  _ near it _ ,” he hisses, his fins flared wide, “we should go back.” 

“No, come on, I’m not scared of a bunch of  _ dead fish _ ,” Tommy scoffs. 

He pulls his tail out of Tubbo’s hand and beats it once, pushing closer to the fish. Something touches him, like a tiny strand of seaweed. He brushes his arm, but there’s nothing in the water. “What the hell…?” 

Another invisible thing brushes his tail and he jerks it away. Only the thing is caught on his scales and more of it touches his other arm. He makes a disgusted sound and tries to flail it away, but it only wraps around him more. 

“Tommy stop!” Tubbo cries, “stop moving!” 

“What? What is it?” Tommy demands, twisting in the water, expecting to see a predator. That was a danger call. 

“Look!” Tubbo says, pointing down, and that’s when Tommy sees it. 

A dark line in the water. The tangled threads of a net, caught on the edge of the reef, and he swam right fucking into it. 

“What do we do?” he demands, his voice high with fear, Techno know something is wrong when they don’t come back soon. He’ll come, he has to come. Tommy twists in the water, looking for his familiar silhouette. 

“Stop moving!” Tubbo cries again. “You have to hold still!” 

Tommy freezes, even though ever instinct is screaming for him to swim away, to the safety of the pod. Tubbo beats his tail and drifts closer. 

“No! Get away! You’re going to get caught too!” 

“I can’t just leave you!” 

“Yes you can, go get Techno.” 

Tubbo warbles uncertainty, “but--” 

“Go! He’ll know what to do.” 

Tubbo hesitates for a moment more, then turns and with a flash of his tail, he’s racing back to the den. Tommy bites his tongue to keep from trilling his fear. He’s all alone, again. Without even Tubbo. 

He’s caught in a net and he’s alone on the reef. 

But Techno’s coming. He’ll come and he’ll know what to do.

Tommy curls his arms around himself, even though he should hold still. Its not like he can make his situation any  _ worse _ though. 

It turns out he doesn’t need to, though, because the situation gets worse all on its own. There’s a huge splash from the surface, and when Tommy whips around, he finds himself looking at a human. Its big, bigger than him, and its coming towards him. 

He trills, low and soft, but Techno isn’t here. He’s told them how dangerous humans are, how bad, how cruel. He said he’d be there to protect them if one ever came. But he isn’t here. 

The human freezes, staring at him with eyes wide and hair floating around his head like flared fins. Its a male, and he’s in its territory. He chirps an appeasement he knows won’t work, lowering his fins as best he can with the net around him. 

It won’t work, with another mer it might have, but humans are different. They are cruel, they don’t care for territory. They’ll take him, like they took Techno, put him in some terrible cage and make him do tricks for their amusement. 

The human drifts closer. 

Tommy calls for Techno again and tries to swim away, The net won’t let him, it only tangles around him more. 

The human reaches out a hand, he cowers from it, baring his throat in submission. Nothing happens. He waits, breathing hard, for the human to do something, accept his submission or kill him or take him. 

He opens one eye. The human is rising back to the surface, is it going to leave him here then? Hope flares in his chest. 

It is crushed when the human dives back down, something glints in its hand. A knife. 

He thrashes, “Techno! Technoblade! Please!” 

The human dives past him, to the coral where the net is stuck and cuts at it. Oh Sea Mother, its going to take him with it, isn’t it? He’s going to get put in a tank like Techno. The threads of the net bite into his skin, painfully tight. 

The human finishes cutting the net from the rock and it reaches for Tommy. He curls, turning away. The human’s hand touches his arm, but it doesn’t grab him, its gentle. He dares to look up. Its smiling at him, in the way Techno does when he thinks Tommy’s not looking. Soft and kind, a little bit sad. 

It makes him feel better, just a little bit. 

Then the human grabs him under one arm and starts swimming towards the island. He struggles, but the human is heedless, he is held tight as the beach rises up beneath them. Soon the human is no longer swimming but walking, dragging him along behind itself. 

It calls something, loud and bold. Oh Sea Mother are there more of them? Is it a whole pod? Do humans have pods? 

From the treeline, another human appears. It stops dead for a moment, staring, and then it starts shouting. Waving its arms around, motioning back to the sea. Yes,  _ yes _ . Its telling the other one to let him go, surely. 

Then, like the old stories of the Sea Mother’s vengeance made flesh, Techno bursts from the waves, colors flashing, teeth bared and fins flared. He bellows a deep challenge, claws sinking into the sand as he drags himself up the shore. 

He came. 

###  Chapter 3 

Of all the things for Wilbur to pull from the sea, this is arguably the worst. He’s brought one of the mer boys that Phil saw a week ago, tangled in a net. “Dad!” Will calls, “I found him stuck on the reef we’ve got to--” 

“Let him go,” Phil says, his voice is sharp, “Will let him go, get away from him right now.” 

“We can’t just leave him!” Will argues and any other time Phil would be proud of his son’s heart. Not right now though. 

“Will he’ll be fine his pod will--” He doesn’t get to finnish the sentence because what he’d feared comes to pass. A mer bursts from the sea, roaring challenge. 

Only its not a pod, its Phil’s--well friend is probably a bit of a stretch in the current situation but still--Its the one Phil knows. He rises up on his tail, brandishing a spear at them. And then he speaks. 

“ _ Leave him. Or I’ll kill you _ .” 

Phil raises his hands in surrender, reaching over to yank Wilbur behind him. “We weren’t going to hurt him.” 

The merman glares at him mistrustfully. The boy is crawling towards him as best as he can, making tiny little chirps. The merman doesn’t seem hear them, he just stares coldly at Phil and Wilbur, but a low croon worms out of his throat as the boy makes it to his side. 

“We were going to help,” Wilbur says, ignoring Phil’s warning look. “I saw he was trapped in the net, I was going to let him out.” 

The merman’s brow furrows, whatever grasp of english he has Phil thinks he’s probably rusty with it. He doesn’t even know when he learned english, he hadn’t spoken it either of the times they’d seen each other. 

“I helped you once,” Phil says, “do you remember? And you saved me.” 

The merman blinks, and a hint of recognition enters his eyes. “Life debt.” he says shortly, “I owe you nothing now.” 

“No,” Phil agrees, “you don’t.” 

The boy chirps something to his protector, and the merman rumbles a response. 

“We were only going to help him like that,” Phil says, “you would owe us nothing.” 

The merman snaps his eyes back to Phil’s face, “humans are not kind.” 

Historically, no, the majority of them  _ haven’t been _ to mer. Hell, in modern times they’re still not anywhere close to perfect. 

“A trade then,” Wilbur says, “we’re trapped on this island, if you could bring us to the other humans, or bring them here, we’ll be even.” 

“ _ Wilbur _ ,” Phil hisses. This may not be a pod, but Phil has no doubt that the merman is just as willing to and capable of drowning them. 

The merman’s eyes narrow, flicking between them. The boy warbles again and the merman replies. They have a rapid conversation in their own language, Phil has no idea which stance they’re taking, but its clearly an argument of sorts. 

Then, finally, the merman looks back to them. “Fine.” 

Tension falls out of Phil’s shoulders. “Give me the knife,” he orders Wilbur. 

Will gives him a look, but Phil is not compromising on this, he holds out his hand silently and finally Will hands it over. Phil approaches cautiously, the adult mer is still watching him with a vicious glare, teeth half bared. Phil has absolutely no doubt that if he makes a misstep here, he’ll be torn to pieces before Wilbur can blink. 

He’ll just have to not put a single hair wrong then. 

He starts by freeing the boy’s hands, figuring that he’ll feel better if he can defend himself with his claws. He moves down his body, cutting the net as he goes. Perhaps if they’d gotten to it before the merboy it would have been a great asset, a way to catch more fish. But it is what it is and Phil is happy to cut it to pieces. 

FInally the last pieces of the net fall away and Phil backs away. The adult chuffs at his charge and sends him into the sea. “I will tell you if I find boats,” he says, and then turns to leave as well. 

“Wait!” Phil calls, the mer halts, glaring at him over his shoulder. “What’s your name? I’m Phil, and this is my son Wilbur.” 

“Techno.” the mer says shortly. “I will tell you if I find boats. Leave  _ them _ alone.” He jerks his head towards the sea and Phil guesses that he means the two merboys. 

“We will.” 

Techno disappears into the waves. 

###  Chapter 4

Tommy doesn’t go far, even though Techno told him to go back to the den. He makes it to the deeper waters of the reef and finds a sheltered place among the coral. He curls his tail around himself, grateful for his dull colors. If the humans come back for him, they won’t be able to see him here. 

Techno will know where to find him though, he’s good like that. 

If he comes back. If the humans don’t kill him. 

He’d said that everything would be alright, and he’d let the human cut him free of the net without trying to kill him, so maybe they’re friendly humans? Are there friendly humans? Even back in the pod nobody had liked humans. The matriarch had always told them to keep away from them. 

A shadow passes over him, and Tommy trills relief to see Techno’s familiar colors. He wiggles out of the coral and darts to Techno’s side. 

“I told you to go back to the den,” Techno grunts, but he flares his pectoral fin so Tommy can shelter beneath it. Tommy curls around him, clinging onto Techno’s arm with his hands. He presses his cheek to Techno’s with a warble of gratitude. 

Techno snorts but doesn’t brush him off. 

“Are the humans--” 

“They’ll leave you be. Keep away from the island til they’re gone.” 

Tommy frowns, “they weren’t like you said they would be. They helped.” 

Techno pauses, “these two are..different. At least the older one is.” 

“How do you know?” 

“I met him before,” its said shortly, in a way that means that Techno doesn’t want to talk about it but Tommy’s always been too curious for his own good. 

“Really? When you were,” he drops his voice lower, a note of fear entering it, “captured?” 

“No.” Techno says, he shrugs Tommy off as they near the den. He can see Tubbo sheltering within, hear his anxious calls. 

“Then when did you meet him?” 

Techno sighs, “he saved my life once, and I saved his. That’s it. It doesn’t matter. You aren’t to go near there until they’re gone. That goes for you too,” Techno says as Tubbo bursts out of the den to meet them. 

He barely seems to hear, too busy crashing into Tommy and sending the both of them tumbling through the water. Tubbo curls around him, tails twining together, arms wrapped around Tommy’s shoulders, cheeks pressed together. “You’re okay!” 

“Course I am,” Tommy snorts. “You think some humans could hurt me? Come on.” 

Tubbo only churrs warm welcome and heartfelt relief. 

Tommy hugs him back and trills reassurance. 

Techno rumbles from the den, the low call of a male welcoming a pod into his territory. Promising protection and safety. A warning to anything that wants to hurt them, be it from the sea or the land. They are under Techno’s protection. 

They disentangle from each other long enough to dart into the den, curling under Techno’s looming bulk. The great sail on his spine is raised, flashing with brilliant colors, a challenge to any comers. A reassurance to them. 

*** 

They can do nothing but wait. It is what they have been doing for weeks, and having nothing to do but wait means that they do nothing but argue. Over small things, large things, old things, new things. They are both tired, and starved, and afraid. 

Afraid that Techno won’t hold up his end of the bargain, afraid that there will be no ships on the horizon, that they will spend the rest of their lives on this island. 

They go about the routine that has steadily developed on the island and do their best not to piss each other off. Mostly that involves being off on their own a lot. 

Which is why he’s surprised when Will finds him one afternoon. “So,” he says, he seems nervous, his hands fluttering, his eyes flicking around. “We’re not supposed to go near those mer kids, but what if, say, the mer kids were coming near  _ us _ ?” 

“What?” Phil asks, drift wood forgotten in his hands. 

Will mutely points behind him and Phil turns to find a pair of heads watching them from the waves. 

“They’ve been following me all morning. The red one came out onto the rocks earlier. Is this going to piss of our murderous mer friend?” 

“I don’t know.” Phil says slowly, watching as the mer boys drift forward, then dart back again. Like they’re daring each other to get closer. “I think our best bet is ignoring them, for now.” 

Will stares at him, “just...ignore the mer kids playing chicken and hope that their bodyguard doesn’t come tear us limb from limb for existing in their general vicinity?” 

Phil smiles ruefully, “got any better ideas?” 

“Not really,” Will admits, watching the boys duck beneath the water. “Great.” 

**Outline:**

Well I seem to have lost the original outline, but what I remember is: 

Phil and Wilbur were shipwrecked

Mer Boys eventually help them get off the island 

Unfortunately Dream is a Bastard who captures Tommy

They rescue Tommy everyone lives happily ever after the end


End file.
